GinaP

Right now I use Picasa, and I think I need something more, when you start getting customers who pay you, what are others thoughts on this? I think you have to be as professional as possible, that also goes for, where you get your photos printed. But, I really want to find out about this aspect, I am also thinking about converting our garage into a studio and building another garage for our cars, but I do not have any experience with studio lighting ect., when is the right time, I do not want to go into this stupidly and go into deep debt. Advise appreciated!! Thanks!

DebAnn Loc: Toronto

I don't think that's true about PSP not holding a candle to PS. I have both and I find that PSP can do anything PS can do (for the average photographer in any event) and it is a lot more intuitive to use as well. Given that Corel charges so very much less than Adobe, I would recommend going with PSP. Again, for the little, guy, the monthly charge for PS is outrageous. And if you paid $1,000 or so for Creative Suite, you are now being asked to rent it for megabucks. I don't think so.

ELS Loc: Scotland

Here in Scotland it is $42.48 per month to much for me
I will have to continue to use PS 4 and lightroom 5

Spyder Loc: Pennsylvania

Ken ------ welcome to yesteryear. We, too, have no cell coverage, nor cable, nor city water nor gas. We do have garbage pickup (that we don't use), electric and telephone. You learn to live with and be grateful for what you DO have ..............

ronwande Loc: Hendersonville NC

When I first heard about the subscription plan for photoshop I downloaded GIMP for a trial. Though the user interface is very different, it is quite capable except in one area. You obviously don't process RAW files. Gimp doesn't recognize various manufacturer's raw files but of course you can convert any raw file to a .PNG file which GIMP does recognize. BUT, gimp only works with 8 bit per color files.
It will only process 8 bit .PNG files presently. Raw files can be 12 or even 14 bit. One of the major advantages of working with RAW is this extended bit depth that gives a few more stops dynamic range to the image file. You can manipulate the image with the Levels control and not have a picket fence style histogram!

That said, the makers of GIMP do say that a coming version will accommodate 16 bit files. At that point I will download it again and struggle for a while until I learn to use it properly.

Meanwhile Elements 10 will do just fine. Our local camera club formed a Special Interest Group (SIG) on Elements several months ago. It turned out to be a class. By default I ended up doing most of the teaching. Someone saw Elements 10 on sale and a number of us went and bought it. Of course it was on sale because Elements 11 was to be released shortly.

Some long time Photoshop users sat through the classes and said they were impressed at all that could be done with Elements.

ADDED: I should have read all the messages before replying. I just downloaded Raw Therapee. It looks very comprehensive and with GIMP will do all or more than I need. Thanks!

RealBohemian Loc: Toronto

Did you do some complicated adjustments with your Photoshop,do you need that high level? Regular photo PP is normally simple and any other program will do it. It depend all on your needs, to me Adobe is for Pro and Photoshop elements can be switched for anything else, Serif, Gimp, Picasa,Corel.
I'm using Zoner studio 15 it does everything Raw included,organize, view
i have never make better choice. It is free or paid,they have 30 days trials

pbriggs8 Loc: Lexington, KY

You may want to try a program called Photoline, developed by two brothers in Germany. It has most of Photoshop's capabilities at a lot lower price (~$90). It will also run several (but not all) Photoshop plugins. Try it for 30-days and see what you think.

StephenVL Loc: Los Angeles, USA

Lightroom does 90% of what a photographer needs. In Lightroom you can adjust exposure, white balance, color adjustments etc. You can also do spot removal, perspective correction and so on. You can easily do dodging and burning with the radial adjustment tool. You can even remove unwanted objects. The only thing that Lightroom does not do is layers and things like background removal. For those needs there are many options to add to your Lightroom workflow. First up is Photoshop Elements but there are also programs from OnOne software, Nik and Corel. I stopped using Photoshop because Lightroom does everything I need 90 percent of the time. I have a few programs for the other 10% and do not have any need to subscribe to the Adobe cloud.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

gordnanaimo,

I agree with your sentiments on the "Cloud". The Cloud works well where you have a local host server to provide the hosting service, but if it is not local to you, it becomes very slow and sluggish. Perhaps people living in downtown New York, Los Angeles, Redmond, or Silicon Valley have a better than average internet connection. I have a fiber optic connection here, and 10Mb data speed, but simple connections to graphics intensive web servers is very slow and sluggish. I am in So. Calif, 60 miles N. of Los Angeles.

I also use Corel Paint Shop Pro X-4 and have considered upgrading to x-5, and maybe x-6, but the upgrades have not shown to me that the improvements are worth the upgrade cost. Now this is for a current user, and it has been very good over the years since JASC sold their flagship to Corel.

For a new user it performs all the tasks that PS (Photo Shop) performs, including Layers, and many of the tools used in PS that require setting up the Layers Pallet, are automatically set in the PSP (Paint Shop Pro) tools.

For an experienced user of PS, the tools in PSP perform all the same tasks, but may have different names and descriptions. The similarity and ease of moving from PS to PSP make the learning curve much shorter.

Finally, weather you are a seasoned user of PS, or a brand new user, you will discover PSP is much more intuitive to get the results you are looking to create. The secret of any photo editing application is getting the image capture right the first time in camera, then editing becomes a much easier task.

The bottom line
When you purchase a licensed copy of Paint Shop Pro you own the application, it resides on your computer, and you can use it anywhere your computer can turn on.

Michael G

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Photoshop Elements has almost all of the editing capability of Photoshop, and a familiar interface. I have been using it since version 4, and am now up to 11, even though I own CS6 as well.

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

I hope these tutorials will enable you to demystify GIMP. They are easy to follow and you can print out individual lessons to make your learning quick and easy:
http://www.gimp2tutorials.info/downloads.htm

Scroll down the page to find the tutorials plus photos to work with.
Have fun, Trudy.

doduce Loc: Holly Springs NC

Hopefully PSE 12, due out soon, will process 12, 14 and 16 bit files. PSE 11 does not.

GaryS1964 Loc: Northern California

As a user of CS6 I got my subscription to PS CC for $10/mo for the first year. I'll wait until next year to see what Adobe does before I decide to continue. Rumor has it they may keep the $10/mo but they may not and it will go to $20/mo. If they keep it at $10 I'll probably continue. If they don't I probably won't.

You can still purchase CS6 and use it until it stops working. Adobe has said they will continue to support CS6 but not introduce any new features. Exactly what they mean by continue to support is not known. Hopefully it will mean that as operating systems evolve they will update CS6 to remain compatible.

As for PS alternatives I haven't tried any. I like using layers, masking, and content aware fill/move as well as the healing brush and clone stamp. Don't know of any other program that has all of those.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Double Post

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Thanks Shakey, I am pleased to follow your advice. Practice will also be the name of the game.